Household robots and “Westworld” scenarios are one step closer to becoming reality. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that nylon plastic can be used as base material for artificial muscles. When those particular fibers are heated they shrink in length but their diameter expands, allowing them to bend and move.

Making them move in a particular pattern is therefore, straightforward – simply by adjusting the heat applied and the direction from which it comes:

By themselves, they don’t seem like much. But imagine these fibers as part of an artificial muscles, allowing robots to move just like humans. Besides the advantage of such a technology is the low-cost that it implies. Bio-medical devices, robotic components are just a few of the things citizens could one day have access to, independently of their wealth.